


the only thing that’s right

by annesslate



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: A little angst, Baking, Cute, Dorks in Love, F/M, Fluff, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annesslate/pseuds/annesslate
Summary: the dancing in the kitchen at 1am shirbert fic that no one asked for except from me.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe and Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 30
Kudos: 220





	the only thing that’s right

##### 10:03 pm

Anne was late.

Of course she was.

In hindsight, it should have occurred to her that she was going to lose track of time, and that it was a bad idea to start reading 15 minutes before she was due to leave.

But it had been so long since she had had the time to sit down and get lost in the pages of a story and she could practically hear Princess Cordelia calling her name, begging her to find out whether she had saved Prince Wisteria from the wicked warlock that held him captive.

So Anne had promised herself that she was only going to read until the end of the chapter. It would only take ten minutes. Just ten and then she would leave.

Yet here she was almost 3 hours later, panting as she sprinted up the stairs of the apartment building that Gilbert and Bash lived in, stopping occasionally to catch her breath before setting off again.

She knew that she wasn’t going to get in any trouble for being late, no one was even in the apartment at the moment. Her own guilt, however was eating away at her, and a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Marilla’s was berating her for being so careless.

When Bash had called her and told her that Delphine had broken her wrist almost two weeks after it had happened, Anne had almost broken down. She had known that her schedule had been hectic recently and that she hadn’t had much time to visit anyone, but receiving the news about Delly so late had made her realise how much she had been neglecting the people important to her.

After insisting to Anne that Delly was okay, Bash had told her that he needed to take her for an overnight trip for a check-up two hours away, but Delly’s school was holding a bake sale on Monday and he hadn’t made anything yet. Anne had jumped at the chance to help out.  
  


_“Are you sure Queen Anne? If it’s too much trouble I could just buy some cupcakes from the store”_

_“It’s not too much trouble!”_

_“Thanks so much then. I would have asked Blythe to do it, but that moke can’t even make toast without setting the kitchen alight”_

_“It’s honestly no problem Bash. I promise it’ll be a magnificent cake fit for royalty”_

_“I’m sure it will be. We have to leave at 4pm, but the ingredients are all in the cupboard, so come around to the apartment whenever”_

Anne imagined that by “ _whenever_ ” he hadn’t meant 10 o’clock in the evening but she tried to push this thought out of her mind as she took out her spare key and unlocked the door.

Flicking on the lights, she took in the apartment, still decorated the way Mary had liked it from all those years ago. It had been almost a month since she had been back here and the memories of Mary teaching her new recipes in the very kitchen she was now walking into made her eyes well up.

_Focus Anne. Now is not the time to get emotional._

She shook her head, and caught sight of a slip of paper taped to the counter. It was a recipe. For carrot cake.

Anne couldn’t help but smile, her thoughts immediately drawn to a certain dark, curly haired boy with hazel eyes, who called her “Carrots” so affectionately that it made her heart skip a beat and her head spin.

As she lay out the ingredients for the cake, she felt slightly disappointed that he wasn’t there now. It didn’t surprise her though. Gilbert was in his third year of medical school, and it had made him even more work-driven than when they had been in school together. No doubt he was in a library somewhere, head bent over, furiously writing notes, never noticing the time until finally the librarian would kick him out.

Between this and Anne’s new job as assistant teacher at the local primary school, the two hadn’t seen each other in person for a while.

Although, Anne thought as she began to weigh the ingredients out, this may not have been such a bad thing, as her feelings for Gilbert Blythe right now were... confusing to say the least.

The front door was suddenly opened and Anne jumped, causing a cloud of flour to explode into her face.

Gilbert walked in, a satchel slung over his shoulder, filled to the brim with textbooks, confirming Anne’s suspicions about where he had been. He was mumbling to himself under his breath.

“Honestly, if she had just let me finish that chapter! It wasn’t like I was killing anyone by sitting there-“

He cut off as his eyes finally landed on Anne, and his expression softened for a moment before a look of amusement overcame him as he caught sight of the white layer that powdered her cheeks.

“Anne?” he asked, holding back a laugh. “Are you alright?”

Anne put her hands on her hips and stared straight at him, ignoring the funny jump her heart did when she met his eyes.

“I will have you know Gilbert Blythe that I was perfectly fine until you came bursting in here. You almost scared me half to death!” she answered.

Gilbert chuckled and stepped forwards, shrugging off his satchel.

“I’m sorry. Bash told me you would be here making a cake for the bake sale on Monday, but I thought you would have finished and left hours ago”

Anne blushed and turned back to the mixing bowl. “I just started actually.”

Anne could easily picture Gilbert’s eyebrows raising slightly and out of the corner of her eye could see him glancing towards the clock on the wall, which now displayed the time 10:25.

“I got a bit distracted.”

“Ah.”

He walked over to the countertop and peered over her shoulder at the recipe she was reading. Or at least she was trying to read.

“Carrot cake.”

Anne finally lifted her gaze up and faced him. The corners of his mouth were twitching.

“Yes, I thought it was rather ironic as well”, she said, sending him a smile. He smiled back and for a moment they held each other’s gaze before Gilbert spoke.

“Listen Anne-girl, it’s late. You can stay over tonight in Bash’s room, but how about you finish this off tomorrow?”

He had barely finished his sentence before Anne was shaking her head furiously.

“No no no, I can’t do that.

“Why not?”

“I might not finish them by the time Bash and Delly get back.”

“That’s okay.”

“No it’s not _okay_ , this cake needs to be perfect”

”Anne, she’s 6 and so are all her friends. I doubt they’ll care if it’s perfect.”

”But I can’t disappoint her! Not again.”

“Disappoint her? What are you talking abou-“

“I haven’t been here for her at all, or Bash or even you. I’ve been so swept up in my own life and my own problems that I didn’t even know that Delly had broken her wrist until _yesterday_. What kind of person does that make me? Someone who’s so selfish that they don’t care about anyone else? Someone who can’t help but disappoint everyone around her? I promised Mary I would look out for Delphine and I failed.”

Anne voice broke at this, and in an instant Gilbert had wrapped his arms around her, rubbing soothing circles into her back as she let the frustration of the past few weeks out, sobbing into his chest. After a few minutes he spoke.

“Anne. Anne please look at me.” She lifted her head slightly and met his eyes, his strong arms still holding her up. She imagined she must look a fright, what with her cheeks red, her eyes swollen from crying, and her hair and face still lightly covered in flour.

“You could never, ever disappoint Delphine. She thinks the world of you and while I admit that it does make me a little jealous sometimes to see how much she loves you, I understand because how could she not? And how could you ever think that you failed Mary when you were the one who came over every day for months after she passed, helping us and forcing us to eat actual food rather than Chinese takeaway for dinner each night?”

“I had to. You both have an inability to make anything edible” Anne grumbled.

Gilbert laughed and grinned down at her.

“Exactly. And you’re the one here, at almost 11 at night, making a cake because it’s what would make Delphine happy. You could never be selfish Anne, because it isn’t in your nature. I know you would do anything for the people you love. That’s... that’s who you are.”

Anne bit back a smile, her eyes still shining with tears. “Thank you.” she whispered.

“Your welcome.” he whispered back, his eyes searching hers for something she couldn’t quite place.

She forced herself out of the trance they seemed to have fallen into and frowned. “But I still want to make the cake now. It needs to chill overnight in the fridge anyway, so I have to.”

Gilbert just rolled his eyes, “Fine, we’ll make it now.”

“We? You don’t have to-“

“-it’s fine. I want to help.”

“But I don’t want to to ruin your Saturday night”

He looked at her incredulously.

“Anne, you should know me well enough by now to know that my biggest plans on a Saturday night are watching re-runs of The Office”

“No dates?”

“Nope. I like hanging out with you and we haven’t caught up in ages, so I would love to help.”

Anne smiled. “Alright then Blythe. But Bash has warned me that you’re a terrible baker, so the most you get to do is mix.”

Gilbert pouted, playfully nudging her shoulder. “Come on, at least let me crack the eggs.”

“Oh, _definitely_ not”

* * *

#####    
11:37 pm

“Make sure you sift the flour properly.”

“I know.”

“And you have to fold it in. Don’t just start mixing.”

“I know, Anne.”

“Oh! And don’t forget to-“

Anne cut off as Gilbert shot her a half frustrated, half amused look. “Anne, I’m not 5 years old.” he said, an infuriating half smile tugging at his lips.

“I know that. I just don’t want you to mess this up.” Anne huffed, but she had the decency to blush a little.

A mischievous twinkle entered Gilbert’s eyes. “I’m the one that’s going to mess up am I? I don’t believe I was the one to accidentally put liniment in a cake for the town fair back in school.”

Anne’s mouth fell open in mock protest as Gilbert’s eyes shone with mirth, no doubt remembering a teenage Anne who had been mortified because _I almost killed the judges Gilbert!_

“I-that’s not-don’t you-“ she spluttered, unable to come up with an intelligent response. This only made Gilbert laugh harder.

Anne watched him frustratedly for a moment and then, for lack of anything else to do, stuck her finger in the cake batter and smeared it on his cheek. He froze for a moment, taken by surprise, before a slow, evil grin overcame his face and Anne finally realised what she had gotten herself into.

Now he was allowed to retaliate, and she wasn’t allowed to get mad at him, because she had started it. She knew it and so did he.

However, instead of sticking his finger into the batter, as she expected, he grabbed a small handful of flour and approached her slowly, backing her into a corner. Her eyes widened as she realised what was happening.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“You’re already half covered in it anyway.”

He raised his arm to attack, and Anne took the opportunity to duck underneath it and around the counter, shrieking murderous threats at him. He wasn’t fazed however and he quickly caught up to her grabbing her around the waist with one hand and the other attempting to douse her in white powder. She wriggled one of her arms free and grabbed his shoulder trying to steer the waterfall of flour away from her, but only succeeded in tickling him, effectively making him unclench his hand, causing all the flour to fall onto her head.

For a moment there was silence. Anne was shocked still for a few seconds before she slowly moved her head to meet Gilbert’s eyes. The mischief that had been in his eyes had now been replaced by fear.

“Anne, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to actually-“

“GILBERT BLYTHE I AM GOING TO KILL YOU”

His eyes grew comically wide, and he bolted to the other side of the kitchen, as Anne picked up the entire bag of flour and followed him, right on his heels.

* * *

##### 12:58 am

The carrot cake was in the oven but it was long forgotten by Anne and Gilbert.

Gilbert had put on their favourite playlist from the 80s and they were now dancing around the kitchen pulling their best dance moves, trying to out-do one another. It was only when Anne attempted the moonwalk and almost slipped on some spilled batter that they decided to take a break.

Anne hopped onto the counter, breathing heavily and watched Gilbert fiddling with the speaker, trying to change the song.

“I’ve missed this.” she blurted out.

Gilbert turned his head slightly, one hand still on the speaker. “Yeah? Me too.” he said with a smile. “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy.”

“No of course, I understand. Medical school must be exhausting and I’m really busy too because of work. I just... hope we can still get to hang out like this. I don’t want to lose you”

What am I saying?, Anne thought to herself. She guessed that in the middle of the night her mouth had less of a filter than it usually did.

Gilbert simply looked at her and then spoke softly. “You’ll never lose me Anne-girl.”

There it was. That charged air that took up the space between them, whenever he looked at her like he was looking at her now. It made her heart rate speed up and she felt as though she couldn’t breathe. Usually in these moments, she allowed herself to believe that perhaps, he might just feel the same way that she felt about him.

Only now it was different. Maybe it was because it was the middle of the night, or maybe because they hadn’t seen each other in so long and to felt so good to be like this again, just the two of them, Anne and Gilbert. Anne felt bolder than she had ever been and it seemed Gilbert was feeling the same way. He finally found the song he was looking for and he pressed the play button.

He was already walking over to Anne by the time she realised what song it was. “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. Their favourite.

He stopped in front of where she was perched and extended his hand.

“Dance with me, Carrots”

And because she was sleep-deprived and definitely not because she really wanted to, and not because his hair was lightly frosted with flour and looked like snow, she leapt down and accepted his invitation.

She figured that she would be flustered at being in such close proximity with Gilbert, her cheeks turning red as she avoided looking him in the eye.

But as she swayed there with him, her hands around his neck and his on her waist, staring into each other’s eyes in the middle of the night, not in time with the music but neither of them caring, she realised she had never been more at peace.

This felt _right_.

And so when he leaned to gently touch his lips to hers, she pulled him into a soft embrace, her hands tangling in his flour covered hair.

Neither of them noticed when the timer went off for the oven.

Neither of them thought of the fact that they would have to explain to Bash later what had distracted them so much that they had let the cake burn.

And neither of them cared.   
  
Bash could buy more cake from the store anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this is my first ever fic so thank you for reading. this idea has been in my head for a while so I hope you enjoyed xx


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